Openings & Closings: Main Street Gets More Action, This Time in Midtown

The barbecue that won Ronnie Killen first place at the 2013 Best Bites competition at the Rodeo will also be served at his pop-up dinners.

If you've been looking for former Eating...Our Words contributor and Zilla Street Eats chef Jason Kerr lately, look no further: Kerr is the new chef at the recently opened second location of Hollister Grill on Washington Avenue. According to Eater Houston, the menu at this newer Hollister Grill is being described "as 'Gulf coast regional cuisine with Southern accents' that also incorporates 'a little bit' of Central American influences." To see more, check out copies of the lunch and dinner menus that B4-U-Eat posted or check out the photos at Eater Houston.

Eater also reports that meat master Ronnie Killen is testing the waters for his upcoming barbecue restaurant by hosting a series of pop-up dinners at Killen's Steakhouse in Pearland. "Until the barbecue restaurant's location in Pearland is ready," writes editor Eric Sandler, "Killen will serve food Saturday and Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until sold out at his steakhouse."

Elsewhere on the meat beat, La Casa de Caballo will be open for lunch starting next week every weekday at 11 a.m. The Tex-Mex steakhouse in Montrose will also be launching brunch the following Sunday, March 17 with a menu that features both steaks and breakfast items. (Steak and huevos, anyone?)

In other happy news, B4-U-Eat reports that b10 Vietnamese Cafe reopened on Wednesday, after being closed for a week due to a small fire.

Guerrero hopes to reopen Alma soon in Montrose.

Sadly, however, there is one rather high-profile closing to report this week. David Guerrero -- the chef we profiled in a feature last November -- has closed his Peruvian restaurant, Alma Cebiche & Bar, which had only been open for a few short months. Alison Cook writes in 29-95 that Alma "never gained the traction it needed to compete in its west-side market," but reports that there's good news ahead: Guerrero still plans to move into a Montrose bungalow on California at Westheimer and reopen.

Readers may recall that this location was planned to originally house Guerrero's second restaurant, EVO, but Guerrero tells Eater Houston that both Alma and EVO will eventually take form in the space. In that same post, Eater Houston also reports that Montrose BYOB Sophia closed its doors this week for good.

You can drown your sorrows in a new Midtown watering hole, however, as CultureMap reports that Capitol Bar has opened in a revamped auto repair shop built in the 1940s. Although it doesn't have a kitchen, Tyler Rudick writes that "Capitol Bar has carved out a dedicated space to host a revolving lineup of food trucks."

Capitol Bar is only a short block away from Leon's Lounge and Mongoose versus Cobra, but will soon have even more company: "A new craft beer joint named Worhals is slated to open several blocks north on Main," reports Rudick, "while former Bachelor contestant Brad Womack is planning a bar named Dogwood further west on Bagby." Looks like the stretch of Main Street in downtown where new bars Clutch City Squire, Bad News Bar, OKRA Charity Saloon and more are opening isn't the only part of Main getting lots of new action these days.

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Alma didn't make it because the service was terrible. Tried this place on a Friday night with only one server working.. no bartender, no hostess either. And subsequently watched a meltdown between the server and Guerrero. It doesn't matter what neighborhood you're in with that kind of poor management.

Thanks for letting me know Caballo is open for lunch. Can you believe their web page DOES NOT LIST THEIR HOURS OF OPERATION?? Please, people, put the address, phone number and hours of operation on your opening page!!!! Duh!